[laughter] >> and four years from now i will look like this. [applause] >> that's not even funny. >> mr. president, remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. that was the best one yet. but honestly, it's a thrill for me to be here with the president, a man who i think has done his best to guide us through some difficult times and paid a heavy price for it. there's a term for guys like president obama, probably not two terms but there is. >> miss any part of the white correspondent's continue ier, you -- dinner, you can watch any time at the c-span video

library, behind the scenes and red carpet and all the entertainment at c-span.org/videolibrary. >> on monday, ann romney, the wife of presidential candidate mitt romney was the keynote speaker at the connecticut republican party's annual prescot bush awards fundraising dinner. the event took place at the marriott hotel in stanford, connecticut. state republicans held their primary on tuesday along with four other states. this is about 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. we haven't won yet. i said we haven't won yet but we're going to so that's ok. thank you for that wonderful introduction. and it is great to be here. and i will tell you before i even begin that i have feelings

about how difficult this is to run and to do this. and my heart goes out to all of those families who put their heart and soul, believed in their spouse, and yet didn't cross the finish line. i know what it's like because i've been there and how it felt four years ago. i will tell you the sentiment i had four years ago was i know one thing for certain, i'm never going to do that again. [laughter] >> now, mitt laughed. he said, you know what, ann, you say that after every pregnancy and we know how that worked out. i have five sons. that is the feeling you have because it's such an emotionally draining thing you go through. and the person you're fighting for, that you love, that you cherish, that you know they're

being maligned at times, you know they're being misrepresented at times, and you know that they're not getting the proper treatment at times, and yet here we go again. and so what made the difference from this time about how easy it was for me to know to step forward? it was a little over a year ago, it was in january, a year and a half ago now that our family all met together at christmas, and the four years previous, i had my dive daughters in law, my five sons and a bunch of grandchildren. we don't listen to what they say even though they have an opinion. we all decided it was a good idea for mitt to go forward. and then fast forward four years later, we had the same meeting and the opinions were very different. as a matter of fact, there was only one son that felt strongly mitt should go forward and there was only me that felt he

should go forward. and it was quite a different meeting. and the kids all had suffered every moment of every day with every difficult thing we go through as well. and sometimes we all know this when we're parents and watch our kids struggling and even in a supporting match or something else, sometimes we suffer more than the person that's actually in the fight. and so that was -- it was very hard for my children to go through this again. and yet here we all are and we decided to do it again. i felt so strongly about it because i believe in mitt. and this was the question i asked him, because we were trying, and the kids and the boys were all trying to figure out the playing field, like who is going to be running. and, you know, what states could we win and how hard would this be? you try to, like, game it out. and then after a while i just

said, you know something, i don't care about any of that. that isn't what i'm going to make my decision on, because you never know the things that are going to come your way and you never know how the playing field can change. i said, i only want to know one thing. and that is, mitt, if you get the nomination, which isn't easy, and number two, if you beat barack obama, which isn't going to be easy either, can you fix it? i need to know, is it too late? has america gone over the proverbial cliff and we don't have time to turn things around? i need to know whether it's worth it to go through all of this and have you get there, and you're going to tell me then, i'm sorry, it's too late. he said, no, it's getting late but it's not too late. [applause]

and with that i said that's all i need to know. i don't want to have any other question answered for me, because if you can fix it, you must do this. [applause] and i think that's what brings all of you here tonight and why having gone through 42, 43 states, i've lost track of how many states mitt and i have campaigned in, there is something going on out there. there is something so palatable that you can feel it where people are ready for a change, and they're ready for someone to come in and fix it. [applause]

and i so believe in my husband because i've seen him in so many different situations. we met as kids. we fell in love in high school. we've been married for 43 years. we have five wonderful sons and five amazing daughters in law, thank goodness for them. my life would not be -- i mean, i just thank my sons every day how great i love my daughters in law, and 16 fabulous grandkids. so we are busy. and i care very much about the future of my grandchildren, and i will say that in all of these events we go to -- obviously every day is a little bit different, but generally there's a lot of people, and mitt -- people seem to sort of swarm around mitt. and i kind of go off to the side and i go and talk to people and find out -- and i often ask, especially women, why are you here? what made you come out of your

house today to this event? and what do you think about the future? and there's a couple of very interesting things that come out of those conversations. and number one, i will tell you which is the kindest and sweetest of all is that so many women that i've never met before and may never see ever again in my life tell me how much they care for me and how much they're praying for me. and i so appreciate that. [applause] and i can't tell you how much i appreciate that because the days are long. the road is hard. the trials are there. and i never know when i have this little gray cloud that's over my head, when it's going to start raining on me again. and i do need everyone's prayers. but i also believe that we're here for a purpose and that

mitt has been prepared and that he's done things in his life that will serve him so well for the next huge job that he has. and i will tell you just a few of those things. one is he's been an extraordinary husband. he has been by my side in good days and bad days, in my darkest hour, he stood by my side with my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and also stood by my side when i was diagnosed with breast cancer. and i had to have that. i had to have him believing in me and trusting that i could do the right things and pull through this. there were days when i didn't think i could. and there were days when i thought my only future was going to be in bed and too weak to even have any kind of a normal life. and yet he kept encouraging me and kept loving me and telling me that none of those things i

actually did physically to take care of the house and the children and the bills and all the things which some people think i didn't work, but those were things i was very busy doing -- [applause] and you know, as a woman you actually end up having done those things for so many years, taking care of the children, doing the laundry, doing the grocery shopping, doing the cooking, all of those things, which i did, by the way, i didn't have help for many, many years. as a matter of fact, i didn't have any help at all until the fifth baby was born and i had emergency surgery when he was four months old and i was in bed and realized that i couldn't take care of five small boys with mitt working so hard and needed a little extra help. so i know what it's like to finish the laundry and look in the basket five minutes later and it's full again.

i know what it's like to pull all the groceries in and see the teenagers run through and then all of a sudden all the groceries you just bought a few hours ago were gone. and i know what it's like to get up early in the morning and to get them off to school and i know what it's like to get up in the middle of the night when they're sick. and i know what it's like to struggle and to have those concerns that all mothers have. so we are grateful for the response that we got from that and appreciative recognizing that women have choices in life and some choices are not all the same but that we value everyone's choice they make in their profession. [applause] and my hat's off to the men in this room, too, that are raising kids. i love that. and i love the fact there are also women out there that don't have a choice and they must go to work and still have to raise

the kids. thank goodness that we value those people, too, and sometimes life isn't easy for any of us. but getting back to how mitt treated me, and i will tell you again, as -- making the choice that i did, which was to stay home and be a mother, that he would remind me all the time that my job was more important than his, that his job was temporary, that mine was going to bring forever happiness and he believed it, he didn't just say it, he believed it. he valued me and treated me as an equal partner and we are equal partners today in everything that we do. we care for each other. we love each other and we're there for each other. and that's why i'm willing to go out and do these crazy things. it doesn't come naturally, i'm sure. but it's also something that i actually quite enjoyed. it's been amazing to go across this country and to see what people are talking about and to

see how much people love america and how they value it. but i'm going to get back to other things that i've seen mitt do. i've seen him in work do things that are actually quite extraordinary. he was obviously a father to those five boys, you know, my husband, but he also served in our church. and he did things that were so extraordinary, how he counseled people when he was tired. people would be coming into the house late at night needing help and needing some encouragement. i never knew why they came. often i didn't even know who they were. they would come in a side door if they didn't feel as though they didn't want to share they were going through a difficult time. never once did mitt ever tell me one thing about the things he was helping those people with. he kept it in such strict confidence and they had his

complete trust. so that's the other thing i saw him do is being a caring person for others that were going through difficult times. i also saw him at the same time he was raising his family and taking on those other responsibilities being so successful in business. and you all know it's not easy to succeed like mitt has succeeded. but i saw him do it and i saw him do it again and again. and he did it so well that they asked him to come and rescue the salt lake winter olympic games. and that was another adventure. and it turned out pretty well. and it turned out to be a huge blessing in my life, too, because it was at the same time i was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and it seemed like it was the craziest thing in the world to do, but it was one of those moments where in my heart i knew it was the right thing to do even though it was going to be hard and it was

going to be hard for me. and it turned out to be one of the greatest blessings in our lives. we loved every minute of it. we had the greatest time. i made the best of friends out there. and i learned how to start putting my disease in remission during that time, and it ended up being a great, great experience for me. i will tell you a tiny little anecdote which is when i was going out there, i was having difficulty walking. and i was losing my balance and i was really worried about, you know, whether i would be in a wheelchair. during that time, i learned how to take care of my health better, my disease went into remission. i slowly started rebuilding my strength. i was riding horses and doing things. i was doing some alternative therapies that helped me as well. and then by the end of the three years, i could barely walk when i went out, and mitt, unbeknownst to me chose me to be his hero and run the torch

into salt lake city. and what a moment that was with my children surrounding me, my husband with tears rolling down their faces because they knew what a long journey i had been on, for me to be able to run with that torch and what a joyful moment it was for my family to be able to have my husband pass that torch -- [applause] to pass that torch and for me to be able to do that. so, again, you never know. when you sometimes look like you're jumping off a cliff, you never know what kind of soft landings you're going to get by people that love you and care for you and make your life more -- just more wonderful for having the struggles you're going through. that was another interesting chapter in my life and i saw mitt be so successful in turning those games around. then i saw him come and do that in massachusetts. i saw him as governor. and he went into a state that was $3 billion in the hole.

and in four years' time, he left $2 billion in the rainy day fund. and this is the great part. he did it without raising taxes and without borrowing any more money. [applause] so i will tell you, by the way, what i hear from those women that talk to me on the side of the rope lines and what they're talking about, and this is why, by the way, we're going to win the election. [applause] what they're talking about is the economy. what they're talking about is their husband's jobs, their jobs, their children's jobs. they're talking about, believe it or not, budget deficits. they're worried. all of them feel as though we are at a point and that if we don't act now, it's going to be too late.

and that's again why all of you are in this room here tonight because you believe that as well. we are at a critical point in our history, and i have all the confidence in the world that mitt romney, who has the skills, the experience, the compassion, the wonderful nature of having to have the good judgment and everything else that you need to be a good president to be able to do what is going to be necessary to turn this country around and to bring some stability to the future. so with that, i am going to tell all of you something tonight, and that is, we are going to win in november. [applause] [cheers and applause]

>> so god bless you all for coming here tonight, for helping us make that happen because this is going to be a part of it. connecticut, guess what, you're going to have to fight, too. what a fight it's going to be in this state. i know you believe, too, that even in this state with that kind of message, with that economic message, with women that are caring about the economy, with all that are caring about deficits, that we can win. and so god bless you all and god bless america. thank you so much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] national captioning institute] [captions